Sunderland, Saturday
Venue: Sunderland v Spurs, Saturday. Mode of transport: bandwagon. 
It’s easy to see why this could become an “Irish” club in Britain. A quick flight to Newcastle. Short train ride to the Stadium of Light. Good stadium with good fans making plenty of noise. And no obvious resentment about the Irish newcomers – instead there’s real enjoyment of what the Irish are bringing to the club.
There’s the danger that the Irish fans will bring a diluted passion, of course. That they’ll come over with more interest in seeing Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool than in Sunderland; that it’ll become a little like those pre-season friendlies when League of Ireland teams are booed by the Irish fans there to see the English team. Plus, as soon as the match was over lots of the blow-ins legged it back to Irish pubs in Newcastle to watch the GAA, so Sunderland itself mightn’t make as much cash is it could out of the new link. And finally if Keano doesn’t last, then interest could drop off quickly.
But for the moment, there’s the beginnings of something that could lead to Sunderland getting close to being what a taxi driver called “the Celtic of England”. Plus, they’ve got Paul McShane in their team. And he is really bloody good.
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